BAA told to sell two airports!

Flying the flag....but for how long?

Well, well! BAA is not flavour of the month. Having been told to sell off Gatwick they now have another crusty jewel in their crown to sell. Stansted is seen by the Competition Commission as the second airport BAA should not have. But it doesn't end there. The hapless airport company is also told to sell either Glasgow or Edinburgh as well. This is all a bit like the ditty Ten Green Bottles, or, in their case, seven. They did have seven. They could end up with only four. And if Heathrow doesn't get better than Calcutta Airport, they might have none.

BAA once was the "British Airports Authority" and did have some authority. Then they were privatised and stuck with the BAA monicker, but were definitely no longer an authority. At this rate BAA could mean Bugger All Airports, but that would be terrible. They're not that bad. They just need to get a grip of things. Like many corporate businesses they put themselves first, the shareholders second and the customers come a poor third. If they don't want to have their airports picked off one by one they should figure out how to put all three - customers, bosses and shareholders - in a happy win-win situation.

Unless that happens they can expect to circle the planes as the passengers may be on the warpath!

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Edinburgh Airport closed due to snow

Edinburgh Airport is closed again due to a snowfall hitting the runway. Whilst safety is obviously paramount, one has to wonder if BAA is really fit for purpose running airports. There has been much talk of underinvestment. Simple planning would tell them how many snow ploughs, etc they need to keep operational. Other airports manage. Instead of addressing investment, they just seem to look up at the skies and blame the environment. If this winter has been so bad for them, what are they expecting next winter? Maybe they just put everything on a bet at William Hill.

When it comes to advice for passengers it is always recommended that they contact their airline. Not bad in itself, but it always sounds a bit of a copout. I think a bunch of flowers might be a good gesture. Then frustrated passengers could pull off petals one by one. "The airport opens, the airport opens not".

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Is BAA flying on hot air?

According to The Independent, "there is not much doubt what the Government's decision about a third runway for Heathrow will be. This week, Geoff Hoon, the Transport Secretary, with the support of the Prime Minister, is likely to give the go-ahead to the expansion. Equally, however, there can be little doubt that the third runway will never be built".

That is much of the trouble with the governance in Britain. It's looking two ways at once in the vain hope of pleasing as many people as possible. With so many years of this nonsense, we have become a country very much ill at ease with itself. The recession is bound to cause more of the same. In a nutshell it is called "Short Termism". Quick fixes just to gain instant popularity. So long as something is happening, we are given to believe all is OK.

So the "slippery" BAA carries on. Sir John Egan, its former boss, said that Terminal Five would not add to pressure for a third runway. Last week, BAA admitted, "That's what he had to say to get permission for Terminal Five." There's a TV commercial running at the moment about "who do you trust?" and given the antics of the corporate world, most people don't trust business-speak anymore.

The Third Runway debate with be just like the Euro debate. Stick up the Five Tests, which in this case are all anti-pollution ones, and say that when they are met you can have it. So the runway will never be as the tests will never be met.

If only these nutcases could sit down in a room and actually think out a proper transport strategy for the whole country. But being what they are that is probably impossible. A whole new set of people, with clean sheets, are required. For unless we get an integrated transport policy, we will continue to have airports each doing their own thing, trains running around full and empty, cars clogging up some roads whilst others are almost vehicular free.

It's either a frustrated travelling public or a happy one.

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BAA to be broken up?

The Competition Commission is halfway through its deliberations on the merits of BAA having the lion's share of British airports. The BBC still hankers after the old "British Airports Authority", but BAA is not British and it certainly lacks authority. Airports seems to be the only word with a common thread in all this. When Margaret Thatcher privatised the monolith, she probably had no idea of how air travel would increase and that the Spanish would be running the show.

Now the CC has embarked on a probe to see if it is a good thing to force Ferrovial to divest itself of one or more of the airports in their ownership. "We are particularly concerned by its (BAA's) apparent lack of responsiveness to the differing needs of its airline customers, and hence passengers," said Christopher Clarke, chairman of the BAA airports inquiry. He said he was also worried that having so many airports owned by BAA meant that big development projects were being carried out one at a time. I think that the CC's concentration on capacity overlooks the dire need for competition.

Both the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats are looking to BAA to divest itself of an airport or two. "The case for breaking up BAA gets stronger by the day," said Shadow Transport Secretary Theresa Villiers. "BAA's monopolistic grip on so many of the UK's major airports has not been serving passengers or airlines well - as can be seen from the debacle at Terminal 5 and the yearly Heathrow hassle during the summer months," she added.

Personally I'm not affected, as Birmingham Airport stands alone from the airport groupings. However, it shouldn't be about what I want, it is about making the lives of Heathrow passengers a bit better. I can't see the existing BAA set-up figuring it out in a hurry.

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BA! BAA! Baggage Man! Have you any bags?

Terminal 5 at Heathrow is facing fresh baggage woes. Heathrow's operator BAA found its computer system, which sorts bags before they are loaded onto flights, had malfunctioned and manual sorting has had to be carried out. A spokeswoman described the situation today as "incredibly disappointing" but said the airline was working with BAA to resolve the situation as quickly as possible.

INCREDIBLY DISAPPOINTING? This is all becoming an incurable affliction rather than a minor ailment. It wouldn't be disappointing if British Airways had carried out proper checks in the first place. Most people involved in the dummy runs suggested that it was a calamity waiting to happen. The "Spanish Practices" of BAA don't help either. It is about time this outfit was broken up and proper running of our airports got underway.

BAA owns not just Heathrow, but Gatwick, Stansted, Southampton, Aberdeen, Edinburgh and Glasgow airports. As if that was not enough, the hopeless Ferrovial has managed to get its hands on Belfast City Airport.

Where is the wretched Transport Secretary in all this? Baby Ruth may be a candy bar, but Gordon's Ruth is not so sweet!

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Horrors in Heathrow's New Terminal 5

The check-in procedures have been suspended at Heathrow's new £4.3bn Terminal 5, which opened to the public today. It seems to get worse. One worker said, "The computer cannot cope with the number of bags going through". Oh yes! Is that so? What sort of management have the shareholders of British Airways hired?

It is all crazy! British Airways, which has sole use of the terminal, cancelled 34 flights due to "teething problems" and was later forced to stop the luggage check-in. In a statement, BA said it had experienced "initial teething problems" first thing in the morning, which had caused delays in staff arriving at their posts. Difficulties included car parking provision, delays in staff security screening and staff familiarisation and "some baggage performance issues", it said.

It's all wing and a prayer stuff! Didn't they check on all this before deciding to open up. All it does is further the belief that management is far more concerned with bonuses that it is with performance.

"Could do better" should go down on any report!

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Back to baggage trouble at Heathrow!

Baggage problems have hit the Terminal 5 public opening at Heathrow Airport. Some wag employed by British Airways blamed glitches with the bags on problems with "staff familiarisation". Many passengers apparently faced problems with their baggage. A BBC reporter on a flight to Paris said no passenger bags had arrived. Luggage belonging to travellers landing in the UK also failed to arrive.

What is it with large companies today? They take the pounds but appear to have little or no interest in customer service. It beggars belief that British Airways, trumpeting this big hangar as the be all and end all of flight delays and passenger problems, sees this cock-up as a lack of "staff familiarisation"!! They've had years to plan to get it right!

Do those running the company deserve their top jobs?

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Heathrow's Huge Hangar!

Heathrow Airport finally got round to the official opening of the new Terminal 5 yesterday. This futuristic building has so much on offer that apparently passsengers will get through all the checks and security in 10 minutes. According to Ann Macmillan, the resident Canadian Broadcasting reporter in London, this vast open span "village" can get 35 million through in a year! "That's the population of Canada!" she quipped to the BBC. I had visions of a mixed bag of mounties, fur trappers, Inuit, and lumberjacks all trying to pass through. A touch of the Monty Pythons?

I do recognise this as a major step forward for the UK' air transport industry. It's only a pity that the management of BAA and British Airways always seem to have problems popping up. The latest is that BA pilots are are planning to march on BA's Heathrow headquarters, in protest at plans to use non-BA pilots in a new subsidiary. Kind of takes the gloss off it all. I'm not about to poo-poo this achievement, but basking in the reflected glory of the Queen opening the new terminal could well be a false move if other problems are not solved, or attempted to be solved. No good having a superdooper terminal if the pilots aren't in the planes!

This new terminal is for the exclusive use of BA passengers, so no stragglers from other carriers will be there, unless they've taken time out to have a sneak look. We are assured that these passengers will be afforded just as good a service in the other terminals because the BA lot will have gone. But they will still be using the old equipment, such as the check-in desks and security screening. We will have to see how it all pans out.

Yesterday, though, was Willie Walsh's day! Having the Queen to your big do must have been a thrill. Let's hope his high will carry through to his discussions with the pilots.

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Runway protesters on roof of House of Commons!

Following on from the protest at Heathrow Airport, as I write this post, five protesters from the campaign group Plane Stupid have managed to scale the walls of the House of Commons and are on the roof. Having unfurled banners, one of which links BAA, the Heathrow Airport management company, to the decisions made under the roof, the protesters are causing the parliamentary authorities yet another security headache.

I very much suspect that the Government will try to turn this towards security and blame the protesters as irresponsible. As if the New Labour regime has no responsibilities for the security of the Nation. They were instrumental in causing unrest across the Islamic world by their support and involvement in a cack-handed invasion of Iraq. Many of the security lapses are because lowly-paid foreigners are used by the "security industry". New Labour needs to be a party to the solutions, not act as a lofty onlooker carping about the disruptive peasants!

One of the roof protesters, Richard George, 27, from London, said, “I am stood on the roof of Parliament because the democratic process had been corrupted. The aviation industry had taken full advantage of a weak Prime Minister to get the Heathrow consultation fixed. It does not even consider global warming despite everything Gordon Brown has said about the environment and despite the massive impact aviation has on the climate.”

The Third Runway issue could well have a corrosive impact on British democracy. New Labour has a proven record in spin and deception. The BBC are reporting today that business is lobbying hard for this runway, on the "evidence" that the City of London could well lose its primacy in world financial markets. Seeing as the financiers, bankers and general money changers saw nothing wrong in lending money to loads of penniless paupers, dressing the loans up as "sub-prime", these are the very last people we should be listening to!

If democracy gets trampled under foot, or people's perception is that democracy is being usurped, then we are in for troubling times. The Government cannot ride roughshod over the people. They do so at their peril.

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Heathrow Greenpeace protesters bailed

The Greenpeace protesters, who yesterday climbed on the tail of a British Airways plane, have been released on bail. Police arrested them on "suspicion" of criminal damage (scratching the paintwork?) and of being in a restricted area. The latter is more critical. BAA have a very casual approach to security, it seems. The trouble is the place is like a rabbit warren. Given also that most people working there are too busy or reluctant to bother with checking up on "strangers" it is relatively easy to get through for the determined person.

The Government cracks down on occasions, with restrictions on hand luggage, but the real problem isn't the holidaymaker or businessman, it's the vast army of transient workers, with large numbers of agency staffers. Adam isn't known to Eve in the place, at times. BAA always talks of how wonderful everything is, but these events keep reminding us how wrong they are!

The only thing that prevents a would-be terrorist from getting to a plane is the fact that there are deterrents, such as the profiling and screening. But there appear to be precious few positive procedures to stop those masquerading as staff from getting through.

It will now be up to a judge to determine whether this was so serious as to warrant a hefty sentence or that it was something of little significance other than a publicity stunt. We await the findings!

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